Anilrgowda

Program Names govern admin rights in Vista
By John Leyden
April 23, 2007 @ 11:47 GMT

Developers have discovered that the name given to a Vista executable affects whether or not it will require admin rights to run. Security experts said the feature might seem odd, but helps to catch out spyware.

Reg Reader Mike, a C++ developer, discovered the behaviour after spending days trying to work out why just some of his projects required elevation (admin rights) to be run on his Windows Vista machine. To his disbelief, Mike realised that the different properties were simply due to projects being named differently.

"If Vista sees that you have created a Microsoft Visual C++ project with install in the project name, then that .exe will automatically require Admin Rights to run. Create exactly the same project, but call it, say, Fred, and the problem disappears," he explained. "Vista's security isn't just concerned with what an .exe is doing to your PC, but what it's actually called."

We put these points to Microsoft, which responded with a statement that explained why installation programs might need admin privileges to run but not why this changes depending on the name given to a project.